In a short time, the NBA has learned that Tom Dundon is an unconventional person.
He broke the seal when he stepped in as owner and, while the Blazers were in the playoffs, started asking various college coaches whether they’d coach in the NBA for the cheapest current-day head coaching salary anyone had ever heard of.
Undermining current head coach Tiago Splitter along the way, the league’s unspoken rules frowned upon his antics. Sprinkle in a few misguided decisions to leave players at home and replace T-shirts with towels, then drizzle it all with strong-armed stadium renovation tactics, and you’ve got quite a nice “screw this guy” sundae.
Then, well after the Spurs bounced the Blazers from the playoffs, he took a two-week vacation.
Okay, vacation might not be the right word; Dundon was spending time with his other franchise, the Carolina Hurricanes, while they completed a Stanley Cup Finals run.
No one in their right mind would skip those games and those moments for, well, anything, really. However, hiring replacements for the more than 70 people you fired weeks prior would have been one of the better reasons. Solidifying a head coach for your team who’s known they needed to do so since October would have been another.
But, at this point, one could conjecture that waiting was actually part of Dundon’s plan.
That’s because on Tuesday, after every other head coaching gig had finally been filled — thanks to the Mavericks being able to land national champion Dusty May and the Bulls providing a requisite salary for Splitter (absolving Dundon of that burden) — the Blazers hired Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori as their head coach.
Micah Nori Is a Great Hire By the Blazers
Let’s be clear — Micah Nori is a great hire. He’s been linked to high-profile openings in the past, and in this current cycle, including in Dallas and Chicago (according to The Stein Line). He brings decades of assistant coaching experience, lead assistant experience, and recent postseason success.
By all accounts, he’s charismatic, respectful, and beloved by his peers.
A lot of the same could be said for Splitter. But Nori has been a coach for much longer, and Splitter’s on-camera presence isn’t quite as strong as Nori’s.
It was only a matter of time before someone gave Nori a head coaching gig. Some Timberwolves fans were even secretly hoping they’d swap Nori for Chris Finch.
For whatever reason, it didn’t happen last year. Then every other role filled up this cycle, except for one.
And before we all knew it, Dundon’s plan had worked to perfection.
Was This Tom Dundon’s Plan All Along?
Leverage is something Tom Dundon seems to be a master of. He’s currently wielding its powers against the Portland City Council.
Which is why it would be foolish to think that leverage didn’t play a role in how Micah Nori’s contract details shook out.
As reported by The Athletic’s Jason Quick, Nori agreed to a truly unprecedented coaching offer, signing a one-year deal with team options for each of the next two seasons.
Team options are common, but one-year deals for coaches are not.
For Nori to surrender that much control to the Blazers must mean he’s willing to live by Dundon’s standards — to put his neck on the line and prove himself through results.
It’s a completely new line of thinking for the Portland Trail Blazers, who most recently gave their even-more-win-now roster to a significantly-more-unproven Chauncey Billups on a four-year contract. That worked out terribly.
Blazers Fans Don’t Have to Feel Proud, But They Should Be Excited
What Tom Dundon did was manipulate the situation. He gambled that a guy like Nori would be waiting around at the end of the coaching search, knowing he’d be salivating to take that next step (Knicks assistant coach Chris Jent fit this profile to a tee as well), and he’d give him that lowest-ball offer he was searching for.
He got Micah Nori on a discount.
If the Blazers ascend in the coming seasons, then, similar to what happened with Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina, the chemistry between Nori and Portland should smooth out any disrespect and tension created by these maneuvers.
If the Blazers lose and quickly let Nori go, it will further erode Dundon’s credibility and leverage. He’ll have to repeat this same process, but candidates will see through his tricks. He’ll either have to choose from a lesser crop or finally cough up bigger salaries.
The way Dundon went about it was unconventional, and all it did was keep more money in his pockets.
But Nori was a more-than-viable candidate from even before Chauncey Billups was arrested. This was truly a home run hire — it just comes with a bit of stank and evil, which is something Portland is going to have to get used to.
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